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Digital Course Reserves

Digital course reserves may be provided via Teams (see files tab in the General channel). While the library generally doesn't have the capacity to scan digital course reserve material, we are available to help with technical or copyright questions.

Please note the copyright restrictions below.

Since the coming into force of the Act to Align Copyright Law with the Current Demands of the Knowledge-based Society (Urheberrechts-Wissensgesellschafts-Gesetz – UrhWissG) in 2018, the former provision on digital course reserves in section 52a of the German Act on Copyright and Related Rights (UrhG) is replaced by section 60a UrhG.

What may I make available to the participants attending my courses?

Section 60a allows educational institutions to use protected material to a certain extent to support teaching. Works that have already been published may be reproduced, distributed, made available to the public and publicly reproduced within certain limits. Materials can be made available in both digital (eg Teams) and analogue (print) formats.

Examples of permitted uses in teaching include presentations in lectures, physical distribution to students and the provision of materials on password-protected platforms such as Teams.

What requirements must be met?

Use in accordance with section 60a are only permitted if it serves to support training and teaching. Use is therefore only permissible in order to make learning materials more understandable and easier to grasp; use for entertainment purposes is not permitted. The acts of use must be limited to teachers and participants of the respective events. The provision of digitised teaching materials must be limited to the participants of the respective event and this must be technically ensured, ie the data must be password-protected. You can limit the number of users by using Teams.

Teachers and examiners of the same educational institution may share and pass on copies between themselves.

Permitted uses are still restricted to specific limits:

  • Up to 15% of a published work may be used.
  • If the material consists of illustrations, individual articles from specialist periodicals or scientific journals, other works of minor scope or out-of-print works, they may be used in their entirety.
    • Texts are works of small size if they are not longer than 25 pages or musical works and cinematographic works not longer than 5 minutes.
  • Only one single contribution may be taken in full from each journal.

    Please note: Press products such as general-interest magazines (so-called kiosk magazines) and newspapers are excluded from this regulation, only 15% of an article may be used here.

  • Film works may also be used in extracts of up to 15 %.
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